People think HSUS spends its money to care for animals. It doesn't. Only a minuscule portion of their millions goes to hands on care shelters and their own "network of animal-care facilities"; 4 "shelters" in that network. Ain't that impressive? At least when folks tell you they DO have animal shelters, now you can snigger about their "4 shelters for horses and wildlife and nada for ordinary pets".
"At the Duchess Sanctuary and the Black Beauty Ranch, The HSUS will care for hundreds of horses, burros and other equines rescued from abuse, homelessness or other dire circumstances. The group also operates two wildlife centers in Cape Cod, Mass., and San Diego, Calif., where injured and orphaned wildlife receive round-the-clock medical care." Well, at least they spend SOME of that enormous income for these few facilities. Yeah? Not so much. "The Duchess Sanctuary, the facility's new name, is made possible thanks to a $3.5 million donation from the Roberts Foundation, the Ark Watch Foundation and its founder Celine Myers." and "The first equine residents of the sanctuary will come from The Ark Watch Foundation." Giggle. Ark Watch's horses and Ark Watch's money. Why doesn't Ark Watch run the facility and save the cut that inevitable will be sucked out by HSUS? Beats me!
No doubt the other facilities are similarly funded/situated.
"Collectively, these facilities make The HSUS and its family of organizations one of the largest provider of animal care in the nation." Largest in what sense and what other facilities are you claiming in your network because these 4 probably wouldn't match up to a single large scale pet shelter in a major metro area? Are you counting every other HS and SPCA out there in your "family of organizations"? Kinda like the way we all strongly suspect you count every person you've ever acquired a name for in your "supporters" numbers?
Oh, my, just having that link now ready to hand and it being from the horse's mouth would have been enough to make my morning.
Desiree Bender, the HSUS' Arkansas state director said, "The horses were living in deplorable conditions... The owner of those horses, seized on November 12, has her horses back but HSUS is still the "custodian" of them although I'll bet dollars to donuts they provide NOTHING for the horses. And the fight is still dragging on because HSUS simply seems to enjoy torturing humans while caring nothing for the animal lives hanging in the balance.
Here in Texas, we had a significant dog/cat seizure in Fannin County. Initially, the reports were rather tame. Of course, that's changed since the owners didn't just roll over and give up their animals. So now: Some 65 dogs and 10 cats were found Friday in Leonard, in "deplorable conditions"... According to Maura Davies, spokesperson for the SPCA of Texas, several dogs were found tethered to chains...
You should take a few minutes to watch the video on that last link. You'll get to hear the reporter state that the animals they were permitted to see, presumptively those would be the worst to make their case, looked HEALTHY. You can also catch a glimpse of the outdoor dog runs that SPCA kinda failed to catch in the photos they published of the property (although the did get beautiful pics of the lush open play field, gorgeous despite recent rain and storms). And then there's the horse! Initially there was mention on the net that dogs, cats, and a horse were seized. Watch that video closely and you will see that the plump horse is still at the property!
Did y'all learn an expensive lesson when you had to send those Longhorns back home to their REAL owner?
Maura, I'm not entirely sure what "tethered to chains" means but it sure sounds bad. What I SAW in SPCAT photos appeared to be lightweight cable tie outs like the ones sold at Petsmart, which appeared to be attached to the dogs at a properly fitted collar. I did NOT see a single link of chain! "The dogs were chained out 24-hours a day [which is] actually against state law," said Davies. Are you sure about that? If you're talking about 821.076 et. seq., I think you might have a few problems. That statute doesn't prohibit very much for starters and then there's this:
- Sec. 821.079. PENALTY.
- (a) A person commits an offense if the person knowingly violates this subchapter.
- (b) A peace officer or animal control officer who has probable cause to believe that an owner is violating this subchapter shall provide the owner with a written statement of that fact. The statement must be signed by the officer and plainly state the date on which and the time at which the statement is provided to the owner.
- (c) A person commits an offense if the person is provided a statement described by Subsection (b) and fails to comply with this subchapter within 24 hours of the time the owner is provided the statement. An offense under this subsection is a Class C misdemeanor.
Maura, did you folks coerce a confession? If you did, that's problematic. If there was no admission and you got the call in the morning and did the seizure the same day, it sure doesn't look like you could have issued the mandated 24 hour notice.
I do hope all the folks as SPCAT and their brethren groups know there are many OTHER criminal laws in this state and ticking people off by taking their animals just might tempt them to start reading through the Texas Penal Code an picking out the appropriate offenses and filing complaints against some of you folks. The penal code is pretty easy reading, just look for the "commits an offense if" phrase and you basically get check lists of crimes.
Now back to those "deplorable conditions" that seem utterly absent in the 2 instances cited above. How about a little turn about is fair play? There appear to be a large number of horses at an HSUS facility living in what they themselves usually call "deplorable conditions" and certainly in worse conditions than those depicted for the dogs/cats in Fannin County. Check out the undercover video of the HSUS facility on HumaneWatch. Mud, manure, filth, branches, debris, overcrowding... Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Might we see similarly "deplorable conditions" at Texas SPCAs, HSs, and other shelters? Kinda hard to see it when they are exempt from scrutiny, allowed to secret other people's property away at "undisclosed locations" although we sure know they all have rather extraordinary death rates so...
Just out of curiosity... Hey, Maura, what does SPCAT do with the dead animals? Cremate? Bury? Toss in dumpsters? Or leave it to the veterinarians and pretend you don't know? Somehow I just don't think I'll be getting an answer to that any time soon!